Tamiko Thiel:

Bushwick AR Intervention

The Bushwick AR Intervention is an augmented reality take over of the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City. Artists layered virtual, computer generated 3D artworks - "augments" - over the "real" physical space. This group public art show was organized by Mark Skwarek as part of the Beta Spaces Festival

On Mark's kind
invitation
I was delighted to contribute two site-specific artworks to the
exhibit:

The artworks are available for view indefinitely. To see the artworks you need to have an iPhone or Android smartphone,
and install the LAYAR augmented reality app to view the artworks, and
of course
need to be physically present at the location in Bushwick to see them in place (see exhibition map and information).

"Eddie Murphy and Mae West: Return to Bushwick"
by Tamiko Thiel, 2010

Both Eddie Murphy and Mae West were born in Bushwick and went on to
nation wide
fame as actors. This
artwork brings the two actors back to their ‘hood.
The format is an
hommage to Magritte’s “Golconde.”

"Seven Portraits for Maria Hernandez"
by Tamiko Thiel, 2010

Maria Hernandez was a Bushwick activist murdered for her fight to free the area of drug use. In 1989
Bushwick Park was renamed “Maria Hernandez Park” to commemorate her memory, but I could not find any
image of her on the Internet. This artwork uses 7 photos of various women named “Maria Hernandez,” taken
randomly from the Internet and anonymized as inverse gold icons, to commemorate this “invisible” activist.